Your starting with the assumption that a site needs a hierarchy, that certain users need to be trusted with power over their fellow users. This theory is faulty, we can write software which works in a more egalitarian way. I have already perfected the theorem of how such a system works, and I will provide proof of concept in the fullness of time.

But there is a hierarchy. Some people here can modify the web site code, and I can't. Some can moderate others' posts, and some can't. Some can altogether reap others' posts, and some can't.

... that certain users need to be trusted with power over their fellow users. This theory is faulty, we can write software which works in a more egalitarian way.

Oh, come on. How long have you been lurking the internet? this dream keeps coming back again and again since 1994, and the sad truth still is that you must groom community sites. Countless tried again and again, and after reaching some critical mass there simply is no way around building fences to contain the dirt.

I have already perfected the theorem of how such a system works, and I will provide proof of concept in the fullness of time.

Good luck with that. What is the chance that you are actually this genius to succeed where countless others from Usenet to Slashdot to Reddit to Digg have failed?

Just because there is a hierarchy doesn't mean there has to be a hierarchy. If that was the case then all the wise words written by philosophers over the centuries on the subject of egalitarianism can be thrown out because there is a hierarchy in the world and there can be nothing else.

Obviously there will always be someone that can modify the site code, but there doesn't need to be anyone else empowered above the rest of the user base. Infact, when you get the software right it can look after itself without interference from above.

How long have you been lurking the internet?

About 16 years now all told. And bulletin boards before that. What's that got to do with anything?

you must groom community sites

And the proof of that is? What makes you believe that people are not capable of interacting in a system designed in a manner that allows them to collaborate in equality? You r making a strong negative assertion, where is your evidence? Simply the fact that no one has figured out the way it works yet? If that constituted evidence, then by the same token, we could never have got flying machines working because no one had thought of how to do it yet.

What is the chance that you are actually this genius to succeed where countless others from Usenet to Slashdot to Reddit to Digg have failed?

What makes you think it takes a genius to come up with a new idea which simply hasn't occurred to people before? And I am actually a genius btw, want to see my mensa certs??